A POLICE officer has defended his life-saving skills as an inquest began into the death of a man who collapsed while being arrested.
Robert Grimsley, 34, stopped breathing as his heart failed while being arrested in Pennington Mews in Rugby in July 2014.
Mr Grimsley was pronounced dead some two hours after his arrest. A post-mortem examination found he had a severe heart condition and had suffered acute left ventricular failure. Officers tried to resuscitate him before he was sent to University Hospital Coventry.
At the opening of a jury inquest at Warwick Crown Court, Warwickshire assistant coroner David Clark described the events leading up to Mr Grimsley’s death.
At around 6pm on July 20, Mr Grimsley was seen on CCTV pushing a shopping trolley across Bloxham Court car park, later returning with the trolley loaded with around 80 kilos of lead. CCTV operators notified police, and PC Russell Kelf – who was minutes away from the scene – responded.
The footage showed Mr Grimsley running from the approaching officer’s car, abandoning the trolley and jumping over a wall into the garden of a house on Pennington Mews.
PC Kelf told the inquest he found Mr Grimsley beginning to lie down as he entered the garden.
He said: “This is a common position suspects may take when deciding to give themselves up and many will lie on the ground and put their hands behind their back.”
The officer described Mr Grimsley as “bedraggled”, having several cuts and bruises to his arms, legs and face – which were later suspected to have come from removing the lead from the roof of a nearby derelict building.
After approaching Mr Grimsley, now lying with one hand behind his back, PC Kelf began to put handcuffs on Mr Grimsley’s right hand. The officer told the jury Mr Grimsley’s body then became limp so he began to administer CPR, quickly alerted fellow officers to the situation and called for an ambulance.
The officer said: “I became concerned Mr Grimsley had stopped breathing so I performed CPR and life saving techniques while I waited for back up.”
Representing Mr Grimsley’s family, barrister Thomas Stoate argued the officer may not have acted quickly enough and his training may not have been up-to-date.
But PC Kelf insisted: “All officers make sure they are prepared for situations like these and many officers, including myself, are ready to administer lifesaving techniques to help these situations before emergency crews arrive.”
The jury is set to hear from ambulance crews, witnesses and medical experts as the inquest continues.
